Injury has been commonplace through four weeks of competition for the Ball State University gymnastics team.
So has been the theme of Ball State's wintery campus: the flu.
"We've had eight girls with the flu this week," coach Nadalie Walsh said of the week's practices. "We've done as little as possible to make it quality, and I've been having them rest a lot."
Regardless of the conditions, the Cardinals will play host to Northern Illinois University at 2 p.m. Sunday in Worthen Arena.
The Cardinals (1-3, 0-3 Mid-American Conference) are coming off Sunday's home loss to Central Michigan University, a loss in which many things went right.
Namely, despite the team's three conference losses, Cardinals score totals on combined events [vault, bars, beam, floor] against Central Michigan increased 4.2 points from their 187.325-189.575 loss Jan. 18 at Bowling Green State University.
"We are going to keep getting better," Walsh said. "We still have so much depth and talent to add."
Much of that depth has been prone to injury since the beginning of MAC play.
After dealing with the loss of services from senior and team captain Cobie Zuk, the Cardinals recently added another gymnast to the list.
Freshman and former Gymnastics Specialist of the Week recipient, Nichole Sleeper, will miss action for the Cardinals after injuring her left knee before Sunday's loss against Central Michigan.
"It's a tweaked knee, but we think it may just be a sprain," Walsh said. "She saw the doctor yesterday and we are still finding things out."
Thus far a variety of Cardinal gymnasts have been cycled in event rotations midway through the conference schedule. But as MAC pairings continue to dictate team's mid-season strategies, Walsh is taking advantage of getting injured girls repetitions meet by meet through exhibition competition.
"It's (exhibition) a way to put eight people out there," Walsh said of the strategy. "You can only count five out of the top six scores in the meet, so it's them getting more experience and finding out who the right kids are."
This week, Walsh said her focus is on winning their first conference meet of 2009.
"It (winning) would be huge," Walsh said. "I think it would be a really huge display of how mentally strong they are. If we go in and win it will show them, 'Hey, girls, it's all in your head.'"
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